SEASON 4 TOP TEN WALKING DEAD CHARACTER COUNTDOWN
I have a confession… I am obsessed with the AMC TV series Walking Dead, so much in fact I’ve taken to the comics where the story was originally gleaned from.
I normally dislike zombie movies, and further don’t like “end of the world” scenarios because they usually lack the kind of writing and acting that draws me to the characters.
I feel no more for the “Alice” character in the Resident Evil series for example, than I would a stalk of celery. I have just enough interest to pay attention when the world comes crashing to an end in any of those cheesy movies or shows about some Mayan calender or solar flares..
Further, a lot of these kinds of movies and series just seem to go overboard with the gross-out factor, and when that’s the only trick your pony can do you’re just not going to make it too far.
But Walking Dead is much more than that ( as evidenced by last Sunday’s 9 million viewers ) because they do just enough to gross you out, while writing and expertly crafting characters you care about, love or hate.
And love some characters I do, Andrea, Daryl and Shane are just a handful of favorites ( was in Shane’s case ). Glenn’s asian so he gets points, AND he gets the girl to boot!
When’s the last time you saw an asian guy get some nookie in a series???
NEVER!!! that’s when!! lol
Which brings me to my current dilemma of choosing just who I hate the most out of the three Grimes’ family members. I make no small secret that I hate the Grimes Family in the series, every last one of them ( except for the unborn child in Lori’s womb ), but who exactly do I hate the most?
Where do I start? with the ridiculously stupid and inept Carl ( played by Chandler Riggs)? who is a bad actor ( yes, hes a kid, but he still stinks ) and never ceases to amaze me with his ridiculous stupidity.
I’d repeat “ridiculous” and “stupidity” again but then I’d be a lot like the writers in Season 2 of Walking Dead.
They fell in love with this kid in Season 2, constantly putting him in the way of danger and conveniently making surprise appearances during the worst moments. Luckily they screech to a grinding halt just before falling off the cliff and tumbling into a chasm of unbelievable.
While I can conceivably understand his appearance when Rick wanted to off Randall, I cannot fathom under any circumstance when Rick and Shane had their fateful stand under the moon.
The kid is terrified and indoors with adults one second, including Lori and the next second he somehow sneaks outdoors and finds the confrontation under the threat of having his face eaten off?
Please writers, lay off the Carl Kool-Aid.
Or is it Lori (played by Sarah Wayne Callies), with her hysterical ranting and bipolar personality? She is almost TOO easy to hate, with her questionable logic and callous attitude towards Shane. After telling Rick in no uncertain terms that Shane was dangerous and that Rick needed to kill him, she then acts SHOCKED when Rick tells her he was the one that killed Shane.
Let’s see.. the woman asks the man to do something and then gets PISSED when he actually does it! lmao.. Lori IS a woman! ( j/k!!!!!….. kinda.)
While I don’t blame her for finding comfort in the arms of another man ( Shane ) after the outbreak and her husbands apparent death, I blame her for everything else since then.
Giving Shane the cold shoulder, driving him over the edge, pitting Shane and Rick against one another, shutting Shane out of the baby that is possibly his, and jeopardizing her son by being an overall dumbass.
Simply put, Lori is a dumb $%## who just can’t keep her mouth shut or do the right thing to protect her son. In saying this however, she is just too easy to hate.
But no, sadly the winner just has to be Rick who is quite possibly the most confused protagonist in a TV series ever. In every classical sense of the word, Rick is a tragic figure caught up in the world’s events and without recourse for much of the season 1.
He is expected to lead, expected to protect and is a father who claims to care about his family and do the right thing.
Sadly, he fails in every aspect as he continues to blather about how much he cares about his family and yet does everything to put them in harm’s way. He’s an idiot who clings to the morals of a dead world and somehow expects to come out of the situation smelling like roses each and every time.
His stupidity and indecisive nature is the very soul of Shakespearean tragedy, like Hamlet or Othello, the direct inactions or failure to act results in a catastrophic chain of events that unravels before us.
However unlike those characters, Rick is shackled by his conscience and bound by his morals, steadfastly holding on to the values long dead in the post-breakout world and he seems to value his own morals over his family. His character is cast as a sheriff, a hero, an everyman who is “just-another-joe” trying to protect his family in a time of crisis.
Time after time he makes the wrong decisions, or tries to do the right thing only to be rebuked by his group, his wife and his best friend Shane.
As a father myself, I am not going to sit here and pretend that I would take the same high road should my family be in the line of fire. Make no mistake that I would be saying the same exact stuff Rick does about his family, only I’d actually mean it. I mean who wouldn’t?
Who in their right mind would make the same decisions as Rick in that world?
So in this, I understand that Rick is a very different character, one very complex and yet simple who I have yet to understand. He’s brave and fearless, but can’t pull together the stones to make the hard choice when his family is on the line. He’s compassionate and caring about others he doesn’t know, and yet doesn’t hesitate to blow away 2 drifters in the bar while chasing Herschel.
Rick is a good man, but a bad father and even worse husband. Shane and Lori clearly have more chemistry between them than Rick does with his own wife.
Rick was for all intents and purposes is “bitch-made” for lack of a better term. He shunned his responsibilities, didn’t make the hard calls and lacked the intestinal fortitude required to survive in his world.
The very same morals I would admire in a man and a father normally, makes me despise Rick in this series.
Until that is, he killed Shane, who was his partner and good friend for a long time before this whole ending of the world business came about. And in doing so, Rick’s character evolves by giving in to his baser self, he no longer cares about the “right thing” he now only cares about his self preservance.
It’s about time Rick.
Rick goes back to the group and basically gives them an ultimatum, challenging anyone who questions his authority to “leave and see how far you get” His final words to the group are ” I make the calls, and this isnt a democracy ”
He tells Lori simply “I wanted it over, I wanted Shane’s actions to stop, I wanted him to stop undermining me”
And guess what? I loved every bit of it! FINALLY you’ve become a man Rick! I love ya! So while I wait with baited breath for Season 3, Rick is still the “Most Hated Character”, but he can quickly resolve his standing by continuing on his current character evolution and quite frankly being a badass.
Should he revert back the spineless, weak coward in Season 1 however I reserve all right to hate him, once more. Good luck Rick, hope your wife dies and your son falls off a cliff.
Can’t wait for Season 3!
oh my god….you are so right about the Grimes family!i hate them too.the kid,i can simply just tolerate most of the times,by just considering the fact that he is just plain dull,but i really hate constipation-faced Lori and dead-eyed Rick.i like(d) Shane, Andrea, Daryl,Dale,t dog and even the rotting walkers,but i simply can’t stand Lori.and i feel that what happened to Shane was 96% her fault.she first starts sleeping with him when she thought”heck,dead-eyes is already dead,so why not get myself a new man now?”,and then when lord Grimey comes back,she starts acting like everything that happened was Shane’s fault.and i never understood why she kept avoiding,insulting,and hurting the poor guy,calling him a liar and a cheat.it’s not like he forced her to sleep with him…!and he only lied to her so that they would be safe,after he tried and failed to save rick.For the record,Shane had really thought that rick was dead,he didn’t just make it up!who could imagine that a hospital building is filled with zombies,and yet they all find Ricky boy too lack luster to even maul and eat!!!if Shane hadn’t done that,lori and the kid would have become zombie fodder long,long ago.the kid at least loved Shane,and was even grateful that he did so much for them.and afterwards,she goes and tells rick that Shane is dangerous,etc etc,and later tells Shane how they would have probably been together if rick had really died and how she was unsure about the baby’s father!!she totally pushed him over the edge,little by little.i cannot understand what Shane saw in that cold b****.he loved her and that kid so much,did everything for them,and still received almost nothing but venom in return. Andrea was soooooo much better than her,and if only Shane had fallen for her instead of that b****… Lori didn’t deserve Shane’s love,PERIOD!
and rick is such a piece of dumb-shit.He actually believes he is a good,capable leader who has the guts to remain righteous in a world teeming with gooey,mushy zombies…!!!i hate how he’s always like”oh man,i am so much better than these people!”or “am i the greatest leader or what?”truth is,he is such a loser,he can’t do anything right.the only thing good about him is his sense of justice and morals,but he uses them so stupidly,that it almost doesn’t count.and he can only see how Shane wanted to take his place(which,i admit,was wrong)but is never able to see how that manipulative self-centered wife of his provoked him almost every single day.and i don’t know what,but something tells me Shane wouldn’t actually be able to kill rick.sure he was a hot head who often burst out in white hot rage,but when rick said that he wouldn’t be able to live with it if he did it, Shane himself knew how true it was.i didn’t expect rick to stab him(which i believe he did because Shane was wayyy hotter than him!)and i expected zombie Shane to bite those dead-eyes of his expressionless face.also,continuing on that line of thought,i really hoped that someone would”accidentally” push Lori into the walker-well!!i loved it when she tried to lecture Andrea about how she could make herself more useful,and Andrea totally showed the old crone her place!God,someone please turn lord and lady grimes into a zombie happy meal already…!!
lol! wow what an epic post!
I agree wholeheartedly on all your points! Lori, goodness where to start with her, she’s just clueless, but you are right the real loser is Rick. Great points about his values, they just don’t add up! He’s living with blinders on, but hopefully that will change in the jail and Season 3.
I can’t wait! Thanks for chiming in!
Shane is a sociopath, and I’m pretty sure there’s something wrong with you as well for endorsing his behavior as good and normal.
Shane is a sociopath? why? because his best friend “died” and he found comfort in his dead friend’s wife for some time only to discover that he was going to get shut out of a baby that might have been his all during the apocalypse? Yer right.. complete and utter sociopath.
And endorsing his behavior? I never did, in fact it was pretty clear that Shane was doomed to die from the start. Me liking his character has nothing to do with endorsement of any sort. Maybe you should try actually reading my post. That or maybe take reading comprehension in your local institution for higher learning Doctor.
In short please take your condescending attitude elsewhere. People who want to get on a soapbox and dish about other people’s feelings about a FICTIONAL SHOW make me sick to my fucking stomach.
To stockspider: Nice rage graph brah. Shane is a sociopath because he displays the traits of a sociopath, moron.
Callous unconcern for the feelings of others.
Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, and obligations.
Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though having no difficulty in establishing them.
Very low tolerance to frustration, a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence.
Incapacity to experience guilt or to profit from experience, particularly punishment.
Markedly prone to blame others or to offer plausible rationalization for the behavior that has brought the person into conflict with society.
If a person meets three of these criteria they can legally be considered a sociopath. Shane qualifies. Sorry to knock your boner for shane tho brah.
u r welcome…and i totally went into rant-mode and forgot to say the most important thing,which is,YOUR ARTICLE IS AWESOME!!!loved how you punched humor with solid,rational points…great writing.and yeah,old Ricky-boy totally dodges his responsibilities and avoids making useful decisions,the lack of which he later tries to explain by going,”nah bra…it’s all cool,for i’m JUSTICE MAN….the stupid hatted crusader!!!fear my mighty curls of ample chest-hair!!!”;-D
And now that Shane is dead,i bet Mrs Lori “why-can’t-i-pass-stool?” grimes is gonna drive him crazy next.cant wait to see Michonne kick ass next season.
hahah great stuff and thanks for the kind words.. Yep Michonne will be awesome! bring on Season 3! Thanks for sharing!
Wow you are just a piece of crap bro. I mean I agree with you about cry baby bad actor Carl and I can’t stand Lori but Rick is one of the best characters if not the best. It’s clear from your statement of who you like the best that you’re a pretty sick and confused person. Every character that you like is written to be a bad character and yet they are your favorites. It’s ok that you’re are a little whinny baby who would piss your pants in any one of the situations that they go through so you don’t have try to play the “tough guy” act just to make yourself feel better. You’re not fooling any of us and its clear to see that you would crumble in the walking dead world and like I said pretending to like the bad guys and hate the good guy doesn’t make you look cool or cover up that you’re a sissy.
Now as far as Daryl he is a cool guy who obviously has a good side and is struggling with his dark side but overall tends to do the right thing. He is a great actor and one of my fav characters however Shane is a just a little bitch moaning about this and that all the time and how he is soooo in love with the dumb two faced slut Lori. If he wasn’t in the group from the start things would be a lot better and you wouldn’t have so many people divided up or looking over their shoulders because Mr cold blooded killer might back stab them like the yellow bellied coward he is. As far as Andrea goes I don’t see how anyone could actually like her because she is the biggest weakling of them all. Not only should she be dead already because it was just “too hard” for her wimpy self to handle and she tried to kill herself. Her “you make room for the pain” and “there’s no point to living” attitude is so boring I wish someone would kill her already and get it over with since that’s what she would prefer anyhow and a survival group doesn’t need people who don’t have strong survival instincts.
As far as who I hate the most goes I would definitely say its almost a tie between Lori and Carl with Carl taking the lead by just a hair. Lori just simply deserves to die because she is a double dealing deceptive hypocrite bitch who gives up on Rick in a couple of days and just starts banging his best friend like any slut would do using the “end of the world” bit to justify it. Then she gets her husband back and decides to pray that Shane gets killed so she can clean her nasty ass up and erase her wrong doings. She doesn’t ever stand for anything but rather sits on the fence for every decision and waits until after things are done to pretend she stood for something. She is like Carl in that she runs off and does stupid shit all the time and acts like she is so much better then everyone else. She thinks that she is some kind of leader and can criticize other people but she hasn’t done anything but get knocked up, get people killed, turn 2 best friends against each other and raise a little bitch of a son who doesn’t get the corporal punishment he deserves. Carl is as I said before a terrible actor even by little kid standards and doesn’t do anything but cause problems by somehow being a ninja who can slip in and out of parental supervision (or because his Mom is too busy whoring) without anyone noticing. Like I said he needs to be turned over Rick’s knee and spanked repeatedly until he cries and then Rick needs to say “see you’re just a little baby who can’t even take a spanking without crying so stop pretending you can take care of yourself.” He also reminds me off you in how he thinks and acts like he is so tough yet pisses his pants at the first sign of confrontation. I wish he would just get caught by a single zombie and suffer a slow torturous death that was long enough for him to realize that he is a stupid little brat who deserves to die for roaming off all the time and then realize that he wasn’t all that tough as he cries his little heart out pissing and shitting himself.
How old are you? I’m a piece of crap because of some characters I like on a show? lol, you clearly lack the reading comprehension, or lack the ability to differentiate between reality and a TV show.
Rick’s character is the one I hate, not the actor moron. And if you don’t understand why I hate him, you clearly never will.
Seek help, you may have some anger issues?
rick is the greatest character ever. in the show and real life. long live the rick-tatorship.
Thank god someone agrees! I hate the grimes family too. Carl and Rick acted like Lori’s death, was the saddest thing in the group. Ha ha! No! Amy died, but Andrea didn’t freak out and become a jerk! Carl’s an ass! I mean he thinks he’s so freaking big and tough and just because he can shoot a gun means that hes better than everybody and he’s really rude to everybody! Carol, Michonne, etc.
Andrea is the worst person in all of the characters in the show. Worse than the governor and she did freak out and become a huge sloot. i completely agree with you hating Lori and Carl however. They are both bitches.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Andrea was a character I liked but quickly soured on beginning Season 3. Her witless refusal to see what was happening and the way she let her friend Michonne just walk away was almost a betrayal of her entire character. I thought she was a strong woman who was going to play a bigger part in the show but she became a complete farce in Season 3. No reason at all she would stay in Woodbury when stuff looked a little suspicious.
Agree Rick was one of the worst characters for me in season 2 he was alright in season 1 but man in season 2 he does a lot of dumb shit. I can’t believe people are on his side and hate Shane. Then again most people hated Shane in the first episode they just can’t look past his flaws that everybody has and wanted a goodie character just look at Daryl he gotten nicer in season 2 being rick bitch and all and everybody likes him now I prefer his season 1 self his development if you can call that piece of crap development in season 2 was shit. Shane was the character that gets the job done.
Most people thought he was a douche that wasn’t true for the most part he had to adjust to the world. He even offered to sacrifice himself so Otis could saved Carl but Otis refused. And I still think he wanted Rick to kill him so Rick can be more of a man. In reality those Shane haters in a ZA would of become Shane actually they probably would of been more worse than Shane.
He was the one making the harder decisions he was the most complex character in the series all the other characters was written terrible in season 2.
The writers should of had Shane left the group and then later come back as a different guy He probably would of gotten over Lori and she is probably already dead when he came back.
I’m sick of the grimes family I didn’t really have a problem with them in season 1 but in season 2 they are fucking annoying Carl needs to die I don’t care how badass he was in the comics he will never be badass in the show the guy that plays him is a bad actor.
Lori needs to die right now she is even more hated than Shane for good reason. Rick is a boring main character since season 2 and in the 2nd half he became a damn douche bag he is a shitty leader and most of the decisions he makes is crap he is just going to get more people killed. I saw the premiere of s3 and Carol pissed me off saying Shane would of never gotten us this far.
What a cheap shot the writers did off screen doesn’t count Rick would of fuck up way earlier if it was onscreen just like in this episode Rick had Hershel come along with him and guess what he got bitten Hershel wasn’t looking too good from the beginning of the episode he was one of the most important people you could have in your group looking forward to Rick to fuck up more.
I don’t really like Carl, especially not in Season 2. He was just a character written to provoke trouble so the series can stay interesting. But now that I’ve watched half of season 3, I like him soo much more because he’s actually being useful and adapted to the “Walking Dead” world…
As for Lori, I never really disliked her. But I do agree that it was stupid of her to act surprised after finding out that Rick had killed Shane, when she was basically the one to ignite their conflict.
I love Rick. I don’t even know why you would say he’s a bad character. He transforms right before your eyes in the season 2 finale. He’s definitely the most real character in TWD to me, and him just trying to do the right thing is nothing to hate him for… Even though that 7-episode quest of looking for Sophia did become a drag.
As for Andrea, honestly I wouldn’t like her even if I tried. She is the TRADITIONAL always-in-your-way-whiny-bitch character that you always see in these survival shows/movies. Oh my gosh, first of all her judgement is completely impaired. She always tries to act like one of the guys when she doesn’t do anything, and she’s just a burden to the group. She would have died if Dale hadn’t persuaded her to leave the CDC building, and I totally wish he did.
And if you guys have caught up to season 3, you will hate her even more. I’m surprised she’s still alive. But then again, you always need a character like her in these kind of shows/movies. By the way, I hate the actress just as much as the character for actually liking her role.
Seriously there’s not much point in watching the walking dead if you don’t even like the main characters. Don’t say that Chandeler Riggs is a bad actor, if he was that bad he wouldn’t of made it in, besides he’s just a kid. I would hate to be your kid as your anger is over the top. Stop taking it out on people you haven’t met.
i’ve seen some AMAZING child actors, so that’s no excuse. I’ve gotta say i agree, chandeler riggs is a pretty bad actor…. however to give him credit, i think he’s got noticeably better this last season
Thanks Alex, I agree!
I recently guest wrote a top ten walking dead character ranking, check it out here if you wish.
http://www.toptenonline.org/top-ten-walking-dead-characters/
Awesome.. Rick Grimes character hate
I loved every character on the show for different reasons, I never really got to disliking a character so much til I couldnt stand them like for example Andrea, she had opportunities to kill the governor instead she slept with him lol and I was upset at her saying I hope she gets killed off but when she died I was a bit hurt by it because I remember Dale and what he tried to teach her along with everyone else about keeping your humanity although I disagreed with that but he was absolutely correct, and I loved Shane he was my favorite character off of TWD of all time but I hated the fact that he kept his obsession for Lori and yes he did alot for that group if it wasnt for shane ,carl would be dead and many people disagree with him sacrificing Otis to do that but I ask them what would you have done? and the same thing goes for Rick the guy wakes up out of a coma, the world has gone to shit, his wife and son is missing, and he didn’t ask to be the leader but he stepped up anyway and did best and I disagreed with alot of them but its like what Dale was preaching before he died and thats how i view the show
Fuck you. Im a real grimes. The family that the hatfields married into bitch.
Cody, you’ll be happy to see that I gave your family name some props : http://www.toptenonline.org/top-ten-walking-dead-characters/
Thanks for commenting, Lori really was pretty painful to watch.. I cant wait for season 4 to come back though. please check out my guest written Top Ten Walking Dead Characters ranking here.
Wow, reading this, I can tell that most of the people in this thread would be the sort to shoot and kill humans and raid their supplies at the end of the world. Really? Rick is a bitch because he’s trying to be moral and decent? He’s only acceptable if he turns into Shane, who solves every problem with a gun or a fist?
Just because the end of the world comes doesn’t mean that suddenly, civilization doesn’t matter any more. The only reason the world is Dog-Eat-Dog is because of people who THINK and ACT like the world is Dog-Eat-Dog. If you bastards would stop being so fucking SELFISH and so SELF-CENTERED, this world would already be a good place. But no, it’s all about you or your family. Fuck everyone else.
Imagine how much better the world would be if everyone just cared about everyone else. If folks like some of you stopped acting like mindless ANIMALS and started acting like human beings – if you see someone in need, you help them. You don’t leave them by the side of the road like Rick did in that episode with Michone and Carl and Morgan. Yes, you take risks to help other people. What’s the fucking point of living if you’re going to live like THAT?
I can see a lot of people – including the original poster – being EXACTLY like the governor. Hell, I bet he was one of your favorite characters too. I bet some of you loved it when he shot all of those “pussies” in season 3. Gotta do what you gotta do, right? I mean, it’s all justified because he kept all of those people alive, right?
It’s just a TV show, but wow. Some of the reactions here and elsewhere makes it clear that many humans are just secretly sociopaths who would do ANYTHING if they could have the excuse of ‘oh, I have to survive’ or ‘oh, my family is in danger’. I’d hate to be at the end of the world with you lot. You’d kill me for a can of beans.
Just sickening.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
As far as some of us wanting to go on a bloodthirsty killing spree I think you are going a tad far lol. Rick is not a bitch for standing by his morals, far from it in fact that’s what makes his character so compelling as I stated.
His morals and faults in the first season and the majority of season 2 however were misguided… at best. If he was going to stand as a bastion for justice, he shouldn’t be talking about his family and group being the only thing he cared about. Further these people put their lives in his hands, which he on many occasion recklessly jeopardized.
His choices put the group at risk almost constantly in season 1 and 2, I can rattle them off like a list. So while you are correct I am “bashing” him in a way, I’m not doing it because he has morals. I’m doing it because his choices were going to lead to disaster, which it did many times but that’s besides the point. His character arc is rounding out quite nicely now which makes his awkward mistakes in Season 1 and 2 more acceptable.
Directly after the bar scene where Rick recovers Herschel, walkers are surrounding the heroes and he has to try and save one of the people that just a few seconds ago tried to kill them. In the process they try to lift him off that fence, making noise and wasting ammunition he endangers not just the immediate group, but the entire farm because he brings this guy back. For what? why?
Rick’s “plan” is to bring the guy back to the farm and you know how that plan worked out. Being a decent human being with a resemblance of a moral compass is one thing, blatantly being an asshat is another. Unless his master plan was to bring the guy back and smoke Shane out of his plan to murder him.
I bashed him because he said one thing and did another. But that’s his character and in that I’m not really complaining. Rick’s one of my favorite characters which reflects my post on him.
Funny you mention the Governer because the TV version of him is almost the same character as Rick. He says and proclaims to love Woodbury and protect it’s citizens at “no cost” and yet has a pointless Gladiator style zombie showdown with WWE lights and music and allows revenge to dictate his mind and that’s his demise. Season 3 was about Rick and the Governer and it’s pretty easy to see the comparison being at the forefront throughout the season.
Sadly his character lacked depth and pretty much stunk despite the actor’s effort. To me the he wasn’t quite evil enough, which the comic version did an excellent job of conveying.
And finally, it’s a show about the end of the world. Put people’s remarks and comments in the proper context and you’ll see you’re going a bit overboard on the reaction department.
Nobody is going to become a mass murderer because of our feelings about some show. Especially one that’s had such an up and down production process.
Having said that though, yes I agree Rick made the right choices if it meant someone he didn’t know had to die. He’s the leader and unfortunately your dog-eat-dog sentiment is the world the show exists in. Terminus is just the beginning of other people looking to do whatever it takes to live and survive. That’s their world. Not ours.
If Rick is the leader that he’s supposed to be, his responsibility is the people that put their trust in him and not much else. Not sure what “pussies” in Season 3 you are referring to, but if he had to do it to keep his loved ones alive, then good. If that makes me a monster so be it but it’s not a reflection of the person it’s a reflection of the situation and the world they live in. I’ve never been in a zombie apocalypse.. have you?
Please, his final speech was petulant and whiny, not good leadership.